I'm pleased to report that the money managing process is going really well in our soon to be married home ( Read more... )

This weekend Jeff and I sat down to figure out out budget. We're doing the merging finance dance and so far it's going well. Before we launched into how much we spend on booze, clothes, and electricians tools, I wanted to talk a little about what money can do for us. I had noticed the budget and money process stressed Jeff out while I was pretty ( Read more... )

This morning I stumbled upon a personal finance blog post concerning claiming exemptions on one's W-4. As has been my way recently over money and joint finances, this post put me into a panic and I spent about 30 minutes using a variety of online W-4 calculators that basically told me to claim zero exemptions. This would be disastrous as Jeff ( Read more... )

I'm really enjoying this conversation about money. The kudos and advice are really great, but I have to admit two things ( Read more... )

For some reason I've been up to my eyeballs in surveys and forms lately. Maybe it's in the air with tax season. Kaiser sent me a customer satisfaction form, my building sent a dissatisfaction with building form, a some large academy sent a form for department demographics, and then the Settlement Administrator sent me a refund form. The refund ( Read more... )

I have become obsessed with money. I have all sorts of goals for my money: ready savings, emergency savings, investments, down payment for a bigger home, early retirement, etc. We are debt free, but cash poor and I want to do something about it. Lucky for us, Jeff and I are on the same page--we want to do better with money than our parents and we' ( Read more... )

As you know, I own a one bedroom condo thanks to a below market rate inclusionary program offered by the Mayor's Office of Housing. Among the many rules and regulations surrounding the program, one states that the city sets the sale price and ultimately qualifies a potential purchaser ( Read more... )

This weekend I had the good fortune to find myself in LA eating Salvadoran cuisine along with thatgirljj and her hubbie. I realized two things in their company. 1. It's really nice to be in the company of adults who are in the same mental place as me. Most of my local friends are single or dating or dating and living together. I can think of only one good ( Read more... )

I'm finding it both hard and easy to sell my car. I posted an ad on craigslist and got a number of interested emails. Three folks seem very serious. One guy gave it a test drive last night and seemed VERY eager, but wanted to do his homework (reasonable) and have it looked at by a mechanic and what not. He seemed willing to give me the $7K I am ( Read more... )

I'm in a panic about money. I owe some to my credit card and won't be able to pay it back right away unless I drain my savings, but I don't want to drain my savings. I guess the panic is really about the way I have been spending money with abandon and then feeling nothing but regret for my purchases--I still feel bad about the $350 I spent on a ( Read more... )